Study Bava Metzia folio 59A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
נוח לו לאדם שיבוא על ספק אשת איש, ואל ילבין פני חבירו ברבים. מנא לן? מדדרש רבא, דדרש רבא: מאי דכתיב ״ובצלעי שמחו ונאספו... קרעו ולא דמו״? אמר דוד לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא: רבונו של עולם, גלוי וידוע לפניך, שאם היו מקרעים בשרי, לא היה דמי שותת לארץ.
It is preferable for a person to have sex with a woman whose married status is uncertain and not humiliate another in public. The Talmud asks: From where do we derive this? The Talmud answers: It is from that which Rava interpreted, as Rava interpreted: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And when I limped they rejoiced and gathered…they tore and did not cease [damu]” (Psalms 35:15)? The term “damu” can also be understood as a reference to blood. Concerning the fasting he undertook to atone for his sin with Bathsheba (see II Samuel, chapters 11–12), David said before God: God! it is revealed and known before You that if my tormenters were to tear my flesh, my blood [dami] would not flow to the ground, due to excessive fasting.
ולא עוד אלא, אפילו בשעה שעוסקין בנגעים ואהלות, אומרים לי: דוד, הבא על אשת איש, מיתתו במה? ואני אומר להם: מיתתו בחנק, ויש לו חלק לעולם הבא. אבל המלבין את פני חבירו ברבים, אין לו חלק לעולם הבא.
And moreover, they torment me to the extent that even at the time when they are engaged in the public study of the halakhot of leprous sores and tents in which there is a corpse, i.e., halakhic matters that have no connection to my sin, they say to me: David, one who has sex with a married woman, his death is effected with what form of execution? And I say to them: One who has sex with a married woman before witnesses and with forewarning, his death is by strangulation, but he still has a share in the World-to-Come. But one who humiliates another in public has no share in the World-to-Come. The transgression of you, who humiliate me, is more severe than my transgression.